New Report Shows iOS Overtaken Android In Terms Of OS Market Share In The US For Q4 2014

Over the past few days, we have a number of reports on how well Apple have done with their newest regurgitation of the iPhone, the iPhone 6. Reports already came out from Apple that in Q4 of last year, the company posted bigger profits than any other smartphone company. In fact, more profits than any other company, ever. So there is no denying how well the latest iPhone had done for Apple. We also heard last week, that in spite of Google Play seeing a larger number of downloads for their apps they are still trailing significantly behind Apple in terms of revenue generated from those apps.

Now the latest data coming in, focuses on the OS distribution in the U.S. for the fourth quarter and once again, the results seeming to be going Apple’s way. According to the data provided by analysts at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, iOS was the dominant OS in the US for Q4. It is worth remembering that ‘Android’ represents all android manufacturers and is referring to the OS platform underlying them all. With that in mind, this is quite a feat by Apple in the US. Of course, there is a couple of points which need to be made for the sake of clarity. Firstly, the period measured only represents the fourth quarter of 2014, October through to December and is not representative of the year gone or the year ahead. In addition, the figures according to the data, only suggest the iOS lead over Android was a mere 0.1%. In short, iOS managed a 47.7% OS market share while Android fell into second place with 47.6%. So the margin is extremely tight. That said, this is a big deal as it marks the first quarter in which iOS had surpassed Android in terms of OS distribution in the U.S. since the fourth quarter in 2012.

The data also suggests that it was not just the U.S. which saw Apple gaining growth in the OS market. In Europe, Android dropped by 3.8%, compared to last year. While in the same region, iOS saw a 6.2% level of growth. Similarly, Apple also saw their iOS grow in China and again at the expense of Android, although at present, Andorid still dominates the Chinese market convincingly. It is also lastly worth pointing out, that the figures provided by Kantar are based on customer and consumer feedback and not the more traditional actual ‘units-shipped’. That said, the trend being reported does seem to be one which is being confirmed by other data analysts as well. If you are interested in seeing how the OSes are doing in your region then click here to head over to a neat interactive map by Kantar which will show your local OS breakdown. So what do you think? let us know.